Your career story: What’s your next scene?

Today’s article is a guest post from Anne McCrady.

You are watching a movie. It is about a woman who desperately wants her life to be different, but who finds that every time she has a chance to make a change, something happens to keep her where she is. She begins to be discouraged. Then, someone unexpected offers her a new way forward. In fact, the someone offers more than new opportunity, they believe in her dreams or even lead her to fall in love. She is finally able to live the life she always imagined.

It’s a classic story line – one we have come to expect and yet still find immensely satisfying. That’s because it is universal. All of us are somewhere in that narrative – even you! We enjoy movies, novels and biographies, because they affirm our own experiences of needing, stumbling and finding. It is true of our personal lives and our careers.

As a storyteller and writer, I encourage people to see themselves as part of an ongoing story that they are writing each day. We can take charge of our lives and careers, when we realize we are the authors of our own biography. Our choices determine how the story ends

So what about you?

• Where are you in the story of your career?
• Are you stuck like the woman in my example, desperately wanting your life to be different?
• Are you stumbling along, experiencing one hurdle after another?
• Are you wondering if you are your own obstacle to change?
• Are you to the next chapter when it’s time to open your heart to unexpected ideas, avenues, people and places?
• Or is it finally time to have the courage to take that chance, step through that door and embrace new opportunity?

Like all of us, one day you will talk about this time in your life. How this chapter ends really is up to you.

Wherever you are in the story of your career, take heart – you are the author of what happens next. You have the power to choose your storyline.

Best of all, you can be the hero of the tale you will tell!

Anne McCrady is a writer and speaker who puts Words to Work for the Greater Good. Learn more at www.InSpiritry.com where she promotes using a wider lens, an open mind and a gentle heart.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

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